The present invention relates to mixing apparatus in general and more particularly to an emulsification tester which precisely agitates a mixture of water and material such as printers ink or shellac to determine the ability of the material to absorb the water.
It will be appreciated that home and commercial mixers have been available for a long time. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,931,232 issued to E. Martin on Apr. 5, 1960 discloses a heavy-duty power commercial mixer having a variable speed transmission and a direct drive from an electrical motor. This mixer also uses a double acting rotating agitator or mixer blade. That is, the mixer blade not only rotates on its own axis but also rotates along a prescribed circular path. This prescribed circular path is for purposes of assuring the contact of the mixer blade or agitator with the mixing bowl itself. Thus, it is seen in this mixer that the mixing bowl is held stationary and cannot move.
There are, of course, specialty mixers such as the bread making mixer illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,159,879 issued to Robert G. Coucher on July 3, 1979. This patent includes a high speed, low powered, electrical motor which is geared to a dough hook, and which moves at a slow rate of approximately 52-75 RPM for kneading bread dough. The mixer of Coucher, however, does not in any way include means for precisely determining the number of revolutions per minute and would not be suitable for purposes of testing the emulsification abilities of printers ink or shellac.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,091,463 issued to Roland Tschundy et al on May 23, 1978 illustrates a vat or bucket mixture for commingling liquid and powder components during the production of printing inks. According to this invention, a first mixing tool rotates about the first shaft within a container. At the same time a dissolver disk is rotated.
Thus, it can be seen that there are a plathora of mixing devices, both commercial and domestic, as well as mixers designed for specific purposes. In the printing industry it is of great importance to know the water abosorbing charateristics of printer ink paste prior to the paste being used. That is, proper printing and adhering to the paper cannot be achieved if the paste cannot absorb sufficient water. However, in a similar manner, proper adherence cannot be achieved if the ink has the ability to absorb too much water. Thus, printers ink must be able to absorb a precise amount of water for proper operation. To this end, emulsification testing has been accomplished by the use of commercially available home mixers which have been modified to turn at a slow rate of speed. These modified mixers, however, do not provide sufficient speed control, and require constant monitoring of the apparatus in an attept to determine the number of turns to help maintain consistency in the test. Unfortunately, use of the prior art apparatus and procedures require great experience and careful monitoring at all times. The apparatus described in the present invention, on the other hand, removes the guess work and allows precise measurements of the water absorption characteristics of the material without constant monitoring.